


Trickle Charge

by whenyoudesertme



Category: Arashi (Band), Japanese Actor RPF, Johnny's Entertainment
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Pet Store, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-09
Updated: 2020-09-09
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:20:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26379466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whenyoudesertme/pseuds/whenyoudesertme
Summary: Inspired by a few combined long-ago prompts from kino to write something related to her story,Swimming Upstream: "option 1: Another thing Aiba was destined for (involving or not involving Ohno). option 2: Another time Ohno saved the day (with or without Aiba). option 3: Aiba introduces Ohno to his friends."
Relationships: Aiba Masaki/Ohno Satoshi
Kudos: 8
Collections: Celebrating Master Kino





	Trickle Charge

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kinoface](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kinoface/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Swimming Upstream](https://archiveofourown.org/works/444030) by [kinoface](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kinoface/pseuds/kinoface). 



> Yet again, dedicated to kinoface in celebration of her wonderful and well-earned accomplishment. Thank you to Molly for the beta! ♥ Also available on [dw](https://itakara.dreamwidth.org/31084.html).

Ohno was grateful that it had been Aiba's destiny to have sex with him. It was also wonderful that even after said destiny was fulfilled, Aiba still wanted to have sex with him, not to mention hang out with him and date him and text him constantly.

Still, in three weeks of dating, there had already been moments when Ohno wished he were better at keeping up with his boyfriend. Aiba didn't seem to mind doing most of the talking, or how Ohno zoned out sometimes, or how their dates didn't always make it to the end before Ohno was haring off to help someone in need. But there were times when _Aiba_ needed things and Ohno didn't even clearly understand what the problem was, let alone what could be done to help.

Ohno was hanging out with Aiba at the pet shop when the realization struck him that it was one of those times. Aiba had greeted him delightedly when Ohno arrived, and their catching up on what had happened in the approximately twelve hours since last seeing each other was as easy and fun as usual. But maybe ten minutes after Ohno came, Aiba's smile stopped reaching his eyes.

Ohno tried staying by his side, giving many openings to talk about it, then tried giving Aiba space by moving back to lurk near the counter. But even from across the pet shop, Ohno could tell Aiba was troubled. Ohno had never enjoyed feeling helpless, but ever since he'd settled into helping people with his superpowers whenever he could, being unable to help someone when they needed it had bothered him even more. The fact that the person in distress was Aiba, who was so good, so... _Aiba_ , upset Ohno further.

"Wow, he's really distracted."

Ohno turned at the voice. It was one of the other people he recognized from his visits to the shop. If Ohno had ever learned his name, he'd forgotten it.

Still, he'd seen this person hanging out with Aiba in a way that showed they got along well, and Ohno had always gotten a good feeling from the kind eyes under the careless swoop of gleaming black hair.

Plus, (Ohno squinted at the name tag) Jun was right. "You're right," Ohno said, smiling at Jun.

He didn't get a smile in return, and for all Jun was talking about Aiba, his attention seemed entirely pinned to Ohno.

Ohno fidgeted under that intense stare before his mind offered up the information that this must be the Jun who often featured in Aiba's conversation. Aiba said Jun's superpower was noticing details, or something. A half-conscious conclusion formed: maybe not being able to help Aiba himself meant he should get reinforcements.

"Matsujun," Ohno said slowly, registering Jun's rather large reaction twitch without it sinking very far into his brain, "I like your cool hair. What do you think's wrong with Aiba-chan?"

Jun, who'd already maybe been starting to say something, lost his intense expression as one hand came up to touch his hair. "He hasn't even noticed that, um... well, thank you."

Ohno put his elbows on the counter and propped his chin on his hands so he could watch Jun. He waited for the magic to happen.

For a while, all Jun did was look at Ohno with cute wide eyes. Ohno wasn't sure how that was going to help Jun notice what was wrong with Aiba, but he didn't want to interrupt Jun's process.

At last Jun turned his gaze toward Aiba, though Ohno noticed the loud gusty sight that preceded this event, which probably meant he'd said something wrong. It seemed more important to figure out what was going on with Aiba, though, and besides, what was over was done.

Perhaps a minute passed. Ohno looked back and forth between Jun, who was all concentration, and Aiba, who was stocking fish food in between staring off into space with great melancholy.

"He's trying to decide something," Jun said at last. "He stills when he's thinking about it, then moves when he's decided, then sighs when the decision becomes unclear. And repeat."

"Ohhh," Ohno said. He thought about this. "What is he trying to decide?"

Jun rapped the counter, making Ohno jump. "You know I'm not a mind reader, right? Just ask him!"

Ohno narrowed his eyes at Jun without much heat. It wasn't like he hadn't thought of that obvious solution, but Aiba was giving off an aura of _don't ask me don't ask me_ and Ohno wasn't about to ignore it.

"What?" Jun said, narrowing his eyes back at Ohno in exaggerated imitation. He was a lot better at it. "Got something to say?"

"Yeah," Ohno growled, then even deeper: " _Thanks._ "

He walked away like it was a mic drop, except the pet shop wasn't all that big and he didn't want to go down the aisle Aiba was in and then someone came in the front door... In the end, Ohno ended up looping back around to stand near the counter again.

"You're not a customer," Jun said. Ohno twitched guiltily. Were there rules against loitering here?

But when he stretched casually to take in Jun's expression without getting caught, he saw that Jun hadn't been talking to him. The person who'd cut Ohno off near the front door was now leaning against the counter across from Jun.

Ohno blinked slowly. The lean was kind of impressive. The angle was so unnecessary. Ohno enjoyed it.

"I know," the leaner sighed. "So much better, right?"

"Yes," Jun said immediately. "Go find out what's wrong with Aiba-chan, Nino."

Ohno looked hopefully at this Nino. Maybe there would be help from--wait, Nino? Aiba's Nino?

"Wait," he said. "Nino?"

The leaner said to Jun, "What's wrong with him is he forgot the lunch I so lovingly packed him. Who the hell is this?" The jerk of a thumb to indicate Ohno nearly upset the precarious balance of this Nino person, who had to be the Nino Ohno heard about from Aiba all the time, but the lean was maintained with a small grunt of exertion.

"Remember how Aiba-chan was planning a big dinner party to introduce all of us to his new boyfriend?"

Ohno perked up as he looked between Jun and Nino. Food with Aiba and Aiba's friends sounded fun, especially since he'd already taken a liking to these ones. Then he remembered there were more important things happening right then.

Aiba had said Nino's superpower was empathy. Ohno knew what that was, mostly if not exactly, and he had the sense that it was just the thing that was needed to get to the bottom of Aiba's problem.

"What's wrong with Aiba-chan?" he asked, stepping closer to Nino. He went two steps farther than he would have with someone whose lean was less impressive. It didn't look easy to straighten up out of, and Ohno was curious what Nino would do. He tacked on, "Besides lunch."

Aiba's Nino looked down at Ohno's feet, standing closer to him than a stranger normally would, then dragged his eyes up to Ohno's face without changing expression. He said, "I'll leave the lunch here, then," looking back to Jun in the middle like he'd never acknowledged Ohno at all.

Ohno wasn't much for aggravation, but when it hit him, he tended to go with it. Right now he reached out and took firm hold of Nino's chin. Nino had his head turned all the way to his left; Ohno pushed it around all the way to his right, directing him to stop ignoring him, look at Aiba, and answer the question. He heard Jun suck in a startled breath.

Nino opened his mouth, then closed it. His eyes focused on Aiba.

"Matsujun-san said he was trying to make a decision," Ohno put in, trying to be helpful.

Jun snorted behind them. "You could probably let him go. You two weirdos at the counter are going to put off customers."

Ohno nodded placidly and let go of Nino's face. After a beat, Nino walked off.

"Ahh, he got away." Ohno slouched over the counter again, Jun's warning sliding off his grumpiness.

"No, look," Jun said. Ohno turned to see Nino going over to Aiba. He put a hand on Aiba's shoulder, and Aiba looked at him with an expression of relief.

Ohno felt like maybe he shouldn't watch. Instead he faced Jun again and looked at him expectantly.

After a while of this, Jun put down the binder with post-its in various colors sticking out of it to stare back at Ohno. "What do you want now?"

Ohno thought about this. He shrugged. "I forget."

Jun looked at him seriously for a moment. "Ohno-san, have you eaten?"

"That's Aiba-chan's lunch."

Jun smiled. "I wasn't suggesting you eat his lunch. I was just thinking, he's probably going to be disappointed when he realizes--"

"It's something small," Nino interrupted. Ohno's shoulders sagged with relief, only for Nino to add, "And something big. And the more he worries about the small thing, the bigger the big thing gets."

"But what are these things?" Ohno asked hopefully. "Like... specifically."

Nino stuck his nose in the air. "I didn't ask."

" _Why not?_ " Jun said.

"The aura," Ohno said at the same time as Nino replied, "He has an aura--ugh."

"Nobody's asking what problem I'm having," came another voice. "No one's worrying about me as I try to study during all this chatter."

Ohno peeked over the counter and was startled to see someone sitting there. The person had several different notebooks and overly large textbooks spread out in front of him, taking up at least half of Jun's standing space.

Then the person looked up and Ohno found himself meeting warm brown eyes. " _And_ I never heard about any dinner." After this last complaint, the attention that had touched on Ohno went back to the notebooks.

"Sho-kun, of course you were invited, too," Jun said impatiently, but he ruffled the studying person's hair gently.

"Sulking decreases memory," Nino said, peering over the counter at Ohno's side. "If you want to pass your test, you should really--"

"I'm not sulking!"

Ohno remembered a Sho in Aiba's conversation, too. He couldn't remember what his power was, though...

On the other hand, there was one thing he could say. "Ah, um, Sho-san? Nobody told me about the dinner thing either."

Sho looked up again, smiling this time. Ah. He had a nice smile. "Thanks. We should exchange contact information to make sure we can keep each other in the loop, don't you think?"

Ohno smiled back, nodding. He noticed that even as Sho had been speaking, he'd still been scribbling in one of the notebooks, and while they let their phones swap details, he was highlighting something in a textbook while also discussing with Jun what they were having for dinner that night.

Ohno was a little distracted because the pasta Jun mentioned sounded delicious, but not so much that he didn't remember that Sho's superpower was, according to Aiba and also the scene in front of him, doing a whole bunch of things at once.

That didn't seem helpful for figuring out what was wrong with Aiba, but since Ohno had asked the others, he asked Sho, too, just in case. "Sho-san, what's going on with Aiba-chan?"

Sho patted Jun's calf. "Give us a little space, Macchan?" Then he yelled, "Aiba-chan, I need you!"

Jun moved around the counter to stand between Nino and Ohno. As he settled in with his elbows propped on the glass like he'd forgotten any customer-luring cares, Aiba came over to stand in front of Sho.

Ohno wanted to say hi, wanted to go around and nudge Aiba's side and lean into him and smell his nice Aiba smell and maybe kiss him except later when people weren't watching. He didn't move, though, because Aiba didn't seem to notice anyone was there except Sho, and even his gaze on Sho looked distracted.

"Aiba-chan," Sho said grimly. "I have finals? And I'm not sulking, but I am a little worried about you, so I need you to spit out what's wrong in ten words or less."

"Oh..." Aiba said. He shuffled his feet and stared at the wall. "It's really nothing--"

"Aiba. Look at me, now."

Ohno watched Aiba focus on Sho, then moved his own gaze over to see Sho looking wild-eyed and more than a little frantic. His hair was mussed from more than Jun's affection, and his writing hand was clutching a pencil and twitching nonstop even though it wasn't placed against a page, like he was taking notes in the air.

Sho said, "Please. _Please_ , Aiba-chan. Ten words or less, right now."

Aiba swallowed hard, then said quickly, "Destiny to release animal but responsibility but destiny and Oh-chan!"

Ohno said involuntarily, "Eh?" at the unexpected mention of his name. Destiny to ... what? Oh-chan, what?

Sho nodded with an exhausted-sounding sigh. "Thank you, Aiba-chan. Please move around to the others now. Also, I'm going to eat your lunch."

"Okay," Aiba said sadly. He looked to be on auto-pilot when he came around, but when he saw Ohno he brightened.

Ohno straightened up and smiled back only to see Aiba's cheerfulness disappear as quickly as it had come.

"Which animal?" Jun asked. "Wait, let's move away from the counter."

"Ribbit-chan," Aiba said, like keeping it secret didn't matter anymore. He let himself be herded down the cat and dog food aisle.

"To whom you have a responsibility..." Nino said, following them beside Ohno. "Because Ribbit's in your care."

Ohno wanted to participate. He thought carefully, then said, "But destiny."

"Yeah," Aiba sighed, and Ohno grinned at Nino at his successful utterance. Nino nodded in grave acknowledgement.

"And Oh-chan," Jun said thoughtfully, stopping in front of the cat toys. "Because you're with Ohno-san, uh, because of, you say, destiny, but--"

"Ahhh," Nino said. He snapped his fingers. "You feel like you have to put the frog in the street to get squished because destiny, and if you don't, it's like you're doubting destiny in the first place. Honestly, Aiba-chan."

"Don't say squished!!" Aiba said, turning on Nino. He saw Ohno there and his face went sad again. "Oh-chan and I are destiny. I want, I mean, I really like..."

"I like you, too, Aiba-chan." Ohno moved forward and touched Aiba's hand. Frog in the street... don't say squished. Now that he kind of knew what was going on, he said what he'd wanted to say from the beginning. "Let me help?"

"How can you help?" Jun asked curiously. Ohno kept his eyes on Aiba and slid his fingers into Aiba's grasp. Aiba knew his secret. Aiba knew what he could do.

Aiba looked intently at Ohno. It seemed like a weight was coming off his shoulders as he realized what Ohno meant. "You'll keep Ribbit-chan safe?"

"Again, what suits Ohno-san to this duty?" Nino put in, all nosiness.

Ohno ignored this. He nodded at Aiba and squeezed his hand. "I promise."

For a minute, they all just stood there. Ohno didn't know about the others, but he could practically _feel_ Aiba's spirits recovering. ... Was that what empathy was?

At last Nino said, "I'm going home."

"No, you're not," Jun said. "You're going to lunch with these two airheads."

Aiba grinned. "No, no, I packed a lunch! And I'm saving Oh-chan meeting you guys for our big dinner. ... Ah. AHHHHHHHH!"

"Right!" Jun said briskly. "Sho-kun's gobbling your packed lunch now and we've all met Ohno-kun, so take him and Nino and go somewhere and eat, okay? I'll watch the store."

"I still don't see why I have to go," Nino complained. It was quiet, and he didn't make to leave.

Aiba was frowning again. Ohno didn't like it.

Once again, however, Sho saved the day. From across the store he yelled, "NOW THAT WE'VE MET THE DINNER PARTY WILL GO REALLY FUCKING WELL."

Ohno bent down to catch Aiba's eyes before nodding emphatically. "It's gonna be great."

"I can't wait to officially meet him," Jun said, shooing them toward the door. "I've heard such good things."

"I heard he treats people to lunch," Nino added. "Especially extremely deserving people who helped him when he was in need?"

Ohno nodded. After Aiba tugged him out the door, muttering about friendship and destiny and frogs, Ohno shut it in Nino's face. He waved as they walked away, enjoying how Nino pretended he couldn't get the door open, complete with yelling (hopefully feigned yelling, for Sho's sake).

"I like them," Ohno said. "Let's have dinner soon."

Aiba smiled at him, his whole face alight in the way Ohno had been wanting to see it all day. "Thanks, Oh-chan. Oh, have you been to that new yakiniku place that way? Matsujun said he has to fight to keep Sho-chan from going there every other day, so it must be good! Are you in the mood for that?"

Ohno nodded happily.

Aiba swung their joined hands. "When would be good for Ribbit-chan's destiny? Are you free tonight? Or, is that too soon, I don't think destiny is horribly urgent in this case... probably if we do it before the weekend it'll work!" He looked inquiringly down at Ohno. "Or would tonight work?"

Ohno nodded again and leaned into Aiba. "Tonight is good."

He liked that they were starting to see each other so often, like Aiba was forgetting to be careful not to appear over-enthusiastic, or something. Ohno would be happy seeing Aiba every day, so.

Aiba started talking about all the different kinds of meat they were going to eat at the restaurant. Ohno nodded a lot and made agreeing noises, thoroughly enjoying Aiba's company. Thanks to Aiba's friends, all was right again in Ohno's world.

Yakiniku was delicious, and Ohno had a really good nap in the afternoon, and that night Aiba ceremoniously put Ribbit down on the sidewalk outside the pet shop. He and Ohno walked slowly along behind her as she hopped along, Ohno keeping an eye and ear out for danger as they went into the street, then across into a park, then right in front of a bicycler that stopped before Ohno had to intervene. The person on the bike took to Ribbit at first sight, and when Aiba explained (with some omission of details) that they'd been following the frog from the pet shop nearby and _yes_ she was up for adoption, Ribbit found a new home and Aiba and Ohno a potential new friend. After that Ohno heard distant scuffling and gestured for Aiba's help, and Aiba distracted the frog enthusiast so Ohno could zip off and avert trouble.

After the Ribbit-chan incident, Aiba was even more profuse in his belief that his superpower was knowing when he was destined for something. Ohno, who had never expressed disbelief, found himself moving from passive acceptance of the idea to something more active. Appreciative, even.

Aiba's many destinies seemed to work out in a way that increased Ohno's happiness. Or maybe it was _Aiba_ that made Ohno happy, but either way, Ohno was grateful.


End file.
